Marching bands stride through Santa Cruz streets during competition

SANTA CRUZ -- The usual pop music and screams of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk were pierced by the sound of brass and percussion instruments Saturday during the 2013 Santa Cruz Band Review.

The competition drew more than 50 high school and middle school marching bands from across the state to march through the streets, blaring anthems and pop songs while marching in lockstep.

During the competition, bands march along a designated route and are judged on how well their sound, steps and presentation sync together.

"It's a competition to emulate a military inspection of bands," said Eric Roberts, 27, the band director of Williams High School from Williams.

Roberts marched the route from 2000 to 2004 when he was in the Santa Cruz High School marching band. Now he has returned bringing 26 students to his hometown.

"I'm very excited to be back home," he said.

Spectators lined the streets to support the bands. Some parents even jogged alongside, holding cameras to record the march.

Ursula Burgess was seated on Beach Street watching marching bands go by. Burgess, 40, of Alameda was out to watch her niece, who was marching with Skyline High School out of Oakland.

While her niece's band had already passed by 11 a.m., Burgess was still out there cheering the other bands and basking in the sun.

"You still have other schools to support," she said.

As the bands marched by, Burgess did have some suggestions about what they might do to entertain the crowd.

"I think they need to put more pep into what they do," she said.

Several minutes later, a band came passing by with two saxophonists blasting solos to the tune of Macklemore's "Thrift Shop."

Rick Rodgers came with his wife and two daughters from Benicia to support Benicia Middle School. Rodgers' two daughters played in the band when they were in the school and now, at 14 and 16 years old, came out to morally support their alma mater.

"They're working hard in trying to build the middle school program so that it feeds into the high school," he said. There were 70 band members when his eldest daughter started but it's since grown to 109 -- an astonishing amount for a middle school, Rodgers said.

Vincent Pitzula, band director for John Swett High School from Crockett, said his favorite part was watching his band. During the competition portion of the route, band directors are only allowed to watch students. There is no last minute directing at that point, which is how Pitzula likes it.